Booooooooo! Happy Halloween! I am pretty sad I am missing Halloween because I do love a good costume party, but eventhough they don't celebrate it over here, we are celebrating it at the school because it is an English-speaking holiday. The kids already know a little bit about it...mostly that they get candy and how to say trick-o-treat for that candy hahaha.
As a school we decide what arts and crafts activity that everyone is going to do for the holidays. This year we decided to make these candy holders and then have candy ready for them to trick-o-treat for. They got to decorate them with drawings (dibujos) and stickers (patinas) and then some shiny confetti (confeti) and write Happy Halloween in special markers (plumas). This was quite a hit. 
With the young kids, I made up bingo boards and had them practice drawing ghosts, witches, spiders, mummies and other Halloweeny things. I tried my hand at drawing on my white board and suprisingly got a lot of compliments on my artwork...which I am pretty sure looks terrible but they were pretty excited to see me draw bats and skeletons haha. With the older kids I downloaded some Halloweeny music. While they are not official Halloween songs, I downloaded The Monster Mash, I Put a Spell on You (from Hocus Pocus which no one knows out here), Thriller, Ghostbusters and some other silly songs. I looked up the lyrics and then deleted out a few words for the kids to listen to the song and have to fill in. 
They love doing activities like this because it's not book work and they get to listen to American music. Erika and Adam liked the songs I picked out too and they used them for thier classes and they were a hit! What the kids like the most about Halloween is the candy though. With my small classes of young kids, I would explain how we go trick-o-treating in the USA and then I would sit in my teacher chair and have a load of candy and make them come up to me like I was in my house and then they would 
knock on the door and trick-o-treat and so I would let them pick a piece of candy and then I would make them run around the classroom to go to pretend they are going to a different house (otra casa). They loved it! I also brought a white scarf to work this week and it came in handy in making myself look like a ghost and a mummy to chase the kids around. Overall a very fun week that the kids enjoyed!
With the young kids, I made up bingo boards and had them practice drawing ghosts, witches, spiders, mummies and other Halloweeny things. I tried my hand at drawing on my white board and suprisingly got a lot of compliments on my artwork...which I am pretty sure looks terrible but they were pretty excited to see me draw bats and skeletons haha. With the older kids I downloaded some Halloweeny music. While they are not official Halloween songs, I downloaded The Monster Mash, I Put a Spell on You (from Hocus Pocus which no one knows out here), Thriller, Ghostbusters and some other silly songs. I looked up the lyrics and then deleted out a few words for the kids to listen to the song and have to fill in. 
They love doing activities like this because it's not book work and they get to listen to American music. Erika and Adam liked the songs I picked out too and they used them for thier classes and they were a hit! What the kids like the most about Halloween is the candy though. With my small classes of young kids, I would explain how we go trick-o-treating in the USA and then I would sit in my teacher chair and have a load of candy and make them come up to me like I was in my house and then they would 
knock on the door and trick-o-treat and so I would let them pick a piece of candy and then I would make them run around the classroom to go to pretend they are going to a different house (otra casa). They loved it! I also brought a white scarf to work this week and it came in handy in making myself look like a ghost and a mummy to chase the kids around. Overall a very fun week that the kids enjoyed!They don't celebrate Halloween here but instead celebrate All Saint's Day on November 1st. This isn't a Spain-specific holiday and is celebrated all over in many different countries. This kind of reminds me of Memorial Day in the USA because this day is all about honoring the dead and going to thier graves and bringing them offerings (ofrendas). They bring presents and flowers, light candles and perform songs at the graves. Definitley not as commerical as Halloween right!?
Hope you enjoyed the cute kids in the pics! I love them! They are SO adorable and get so excited about learning English. I also hope you have a GREAT Halloween! Eat some Twix bars for me and get a good costume. I guess when Carnival comes around I will have a chance to dress up but right now I am wishing I could rock my Sacajawea or Safeway costume and go trick-o-treating hahahah!
Besos!
Amanda
Amanda
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